14.03.2026

ANTHEA BARAĆ | New production of Dusapin's "Penthesilea" in Hannover

A woman and a man, bound together by a politically senseless war, obsessed with defeating each other: the Amazon Penthesilea and the Greek Achilles. When Heinrich von Kleist turned this ancient myth into a play in 1808, he reversed the cruel ending of the story: it is not Achilles who kills Penthesilea and then falls in love with her dead body, but Penthesilea who falls in love with Achilles, kills him, and tears his corpse to pieces.

Kleist's tragedy irritated his contemporaries: eroticism and aggression appear interchangeable, women fight like men, hunters become prey, and Penthesilea becomes an animal. This was not how Kleist's contemporaries imagined either antiquity or theater. It did not help that the most cruel scenes were not shown on stage, but only reported: Penthesilea was never performed during the author's lifetime. It was not until the second half of the 20th century that this idiosyncratic work found interest and understanding.

In 2015, French composer Pascal Dusapin turned Kleist's tragedy into an opera about violence and war, trauma and obsession — and the utopian possibility of overcoming all this through loving encounters. In haunting scenes that focus on the essentials, the music follows the deepest fears, longings, and aggressions of the two main characters, penetrating the interior of their bodies while allowing us to follow the external struggle.

Following her acclaimed performance as the witch in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel at the end of last year, mezzo-soprano Anthea Barać, now a new member of the ensemble at the Hanover State Opera, can be seen for the first time in a new production at the theater, playing the role of the high priestess, the religious and legal authority of the Amazons, in the production directed by Stephan Zilias.
 

Cast

Katrin Wundsam, Penthesilea
Olga Jelínková, Prothoe
Peter Schöne, Achilles
Yannick Spanier, Odysseus
Anthea Barac, High Priestess
Juhyeon Kim, Messenger

Stephan Zilias, Musical Director
Lorenzo Fioroni, staging
Sabine Blickenstorfer, costumes
Isabel Robson, video design
Daniel Menne, dramaturgy

Hanover State Opera Choir
Lower Saxony State Orchestra Hanover
Hanover State Opera Extras